Breaking the Magic

For the first time in almost four weeks, I played a different game. This is bad news for ArenaNet.

Okay, maybe not really.

I have mentioned before that I dislike playing multiple games: my M.O. is to spend my entire focus on one item, suck all the marrow from its bones, complete it, and then move on. Part of the reasoning behind this behavior is that I have zero expectations I will play a game again. And the reasoning behind that expectation is that much of the fun I derive from playing a game is conquering its systems/logic and experiencing its story, neither of which usually holds up past initial completion. And where am I getting all this replay time anyway?

There are exceptions of course, the Fallouts and the Skyrims and FPS games. Some games I play for the visceral joy of it too. For as much as the hotkey MMO combat style is derided, I do generally find it entertaining. In fact, I would suggest everyone has to on some level right? How else do you stomach 200+ hours in these MMOs?

Anyway, I had wanted to spend some of my gems on Character Slot expansions to give the Warrior and Necromancer another shot. Nope, the AH was down. Again. I almost logged off for the night right then. Instead, I set my jaw, and did my level best to go through the motions. The moment I got my Daily Achievement or whatever it is called, I logged off.

Slouching back in the computer chair, staring at the empty computer monitor, what I was feeling was this:

A clear sign one’s (gaming) dosage needs increased.

Then I realized: “Hey, I have plenty of other games that actually feel meaningful to play.”

Existential crisis averted.

Of course, a roguelike is perhaps not the best rebound game, especially as brutal as FTL can be. Nevertheless, sixteen hours later, I am feeling pretty good about completing Easy four times and moving back to the most misleading “Normal” difficulty ever designed with a straight face. And after that? Plenty of indie games, Battlefield 3 just released their Armored Kill mini-expansion, and hey I bought Borderland 2 for like $36 before it came out. Maybe I should get to downloading that, eh? Guild Wars 2 will merely be the background flavor at best, as I continue slogging my way to 80 and through what passes as a story so I can say I did so.

Although Mists is penciled in on the To Do list, I won’t be there on Tuesday. Probably not. No, no, definitely not. Well… ugh. We’ll see. Best time-frame I can give is: Soon™.

Sounds kinda of like what I went through last night, except it wasn’t the TP/AH, everyone got booted from the game. So, I watched the Twitter stream of ‘did you get booted?’ for a few minutes, then went and played Torchlight 2. FTL I save to play during work. ;)

My biggest fear about GW2 was that it would be so compelling I’d end up playign nothing else for six months. I really, really don’t want to do that. I have 30+ MMOs on my hard drive and beta apps in for half a dozen more. Unlike you I want to play as many as I can find the time for.

The bad news is that for a month I have played no other MMOs but GW2. Not a one. The worse news is that that probably won’t change for another month, maybe two or three. I absolutely will play the City of Steam beta if I get an invite but other than that it could be all GW2 all year.

The good news is that I spend a lot of time tabbed out of GW2 doing other things. It’s occupying all of my MMO brain but it hasn’t colonized the rest the way EQ, Vanguard or even Rift did. I hope no MMO ever does that again.